“You would expect it from a shard of glass or something but who would think a barbecue would have done something like that?

“There was grease around the cut and you could still smell the lighter fluid.

“She could have got gangrene or anything.

“The guy in A&E was trying to wash the cut out and there was stones coming out of it – she had to have an operation to clean it.

“The surgeon said it was quite a deep cut and there was a lot of rubbish that came out of it.

“For a full 24 hours she was on intravenous antibiotics.”

She praised a man and woman who were walking along the beach at the time of the incident and came to her daughter’s aid.

They took her to the nearby Fleetwood YMCA where two members of staff looked after Emmalee.

“I can’t thank them enough,” Michelle added.

She said she hopes her daughter’s injury will also serve as a warning to people using the beach to clean up afterwards.

“There are bins right along the beach,” she added.

“There’s no excuse for someone just to leave a barbecue.”

A spokesman for Wyre Council, which looks after the beach, said: “We can all do our bit to keep beaches and bathing waters clean by putting litter in the bin.

“As sadly demonstrated in this case, food waste such as broken bottles, cans and other containers can be dangerous for children and wildlife so please take them with you off the beach and recycle them at home.”